We are encouraged by the warm reception the last issue of the International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) has received at various recent conferences. Appreciation for scholarly research on religious freedom and persecution is definitively growing. The editorial team is endeavouring to see IJRF listed in one of the national or international lists of recognized and outstanding journals in order to increase its impact. Conversations concerning this matter have helped us develop our editorial policy.

The International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) of the World Evangelical Alliance pays tribute to its staff member, Rev. Dr. Mirjam Scarborough, who succumbed to bone marrow cancer on 4 January 2011 at the age of 53.

After many years of nearly complete silence in Western media and politics, the issues of religious freedom and apostasy have finally raised attention. Especially in the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s countries like Egypt have seen a growing flood of court charges against intellectuals, theologians, feminists, authors, secularists and converts, some of whom were later murdered in broad daylight in the streets of Cairo, Teheran and elsewhere. While many Muslims condemn such deeds with deepest conviction, others have vigorously applauded and claimed that Sharia law demands the death penalty for anybody who leaves Islam. What does Sharia really teach about apostasy? How does society perceive a conversion? Which consequences are potentially awaiting the convert? The article outlines the teaching of the Koran and the Hadith (tradition) as well as the opinions of the leading Muslim theologians of the formative period of Islam and today's practical implications for people turning their back on Islam.

This paper intends to show the added value that the perspective of Political Geography and Geographic Conflict Research can contribute to the better understanding of interreligious conflicts. Many of the facets of the root causes, power relations, dynamics, and progression of this type of multi-layered conflicts can be better understood when taking into account the specific spatial dimension.

In this paper, we attempt to explore the impact of socio-spatial segregation and partitioning within settlement areas on the development of the inter-religious conflict in Jos and the adjoining areas of the central Nigerian State of Plateau. Furthermore, the paper contends that the urban violence in some flashpoints in Jos and the recurrent guerrilla-style attacks on spatially isolated communities had tested the limits of the strategies of spatial segregation and partitioning, adopted by the Muslim and Christian communities, and the fortification of the city through military presence.
By tracking the incidence of such attacks over a period of one year and interrogating factors that regrettably contributed to their success, we came to grips with how perpetrators have repeatedly exploited the different spatial scales of vulnerability of the city of Jos and its rural environs, as well as the failure of government to put in place an appropriate security system that adapts to the socio-spatial challenges and dynamics of the conflict.

Attempts by people of faith to persuade others to their beliefs, while a protected human right, can spark conflicts in communities intent on protecting their privacy and identity. A possible solution lies in voluntary codes of conduct for missionary activities. Such codes are more likely than governmental regulations to prevent or resolve cross-cultural and inter-faith conflicts relating to religious persuasion. This article analyzes nineteen voluntary codes to identify which types have greatest potential for conflict-resolution. Effective codes are compatible with international law norms, respectful of multiple traditions, and addressed to a general audience. Codes drafted by intra-faith or ecumenical groups - while appropriate for the group's internal purposes - are less likely to prevent or resolve cross-cultural or inter-faith conflicts and should not be viewed as universal standards by which to judge the missionary activities of all faiths.

For the United States and its Western allies religious freedom is a fundamental right, inextricably linked to a variety of other notions of freedom. Although surveys indicate that citizens around the world aspire to some form of religious liberty, nonetheless it and other human rights are constrained for at least 60% of the world's population. Since 1998 the U.S. has committed itself to championing the religious liberty of people around the world, but at the same time indicators by Freedom House and other organizations suggest the world is becoming "less free." With this context in mind, the U.S. and its partners need to redesign a forward-looking strategy of religious freedom advocacy that includes, at a minimum, developing an academic sub-discipline of international religious freedom studies, engaging big business, and building partnerships with other governments.

This work deals with how God's plan is furthered through the martyrdom event. It examines the significance of martyrdom for all participants and observers (or later learners) of the event - namely, for the martyr himself or herself, for the persecutor, for God, for Satan, and for both believing and unbelieving observers. It can be demonstrated that in every case martyrdom advances God's plan by either bringing Him glory, or by enhancing people's relationship with Him.

As members of the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) meeting in Virginia, USA, we appeal to the worldwide church to pray for the nation of Pakistan. We mourn the callous murder of Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti last month and feel this sentiment acutely because he was scheduled to have been a keynote speaker to address our conference. We specifically call on Christian denominations, churches, and organisations worldwide to take this appeal to their members to pray for Pakistan in recognition that we are one body united in Christ.

This is perhaps the best and most important publication on the topic of religious freedom to appear in recent years. Two statisticians of religion,Brian J. Grim, known as the head researcher of the study "Global Restrictions on Religion" of the Pew Forum (http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=491), and Roger Finke, a professor of sociology and director of Religion Data Archives, show that religious freedom contributes to peace and stability within a society and does not endanger it.

Tesfai's book is a timely intervention for all believers serious about the present and future relevance of their faith. Though it has as its focus the continent of Africa, its applicability is global. Indeed to locate the study in Africa is to ground it firstly in what is perhaps the globe's most religious continent. In doing so, Tesfai is on safe grounds in carrying out the task of uncovering the workings of religion, its promises and pitfalls, in order to distil lessons for the rest of believing human kind. It bears recalling that rationalists and secularists have in the past postulated the death of religion as only a matter of time. Modernity, it was supposed, would increasingly spell the end of all superstition and religion. On the contrary, such is the dominance of religion in the 21st century, especially after 9/11, that no serious policymaker dares discount religion as a factor.

Tainted Legacy is a culmination of nearly three decades of study of four epochal movements and their continuing impacts on present-day Nigeria. The phenomena of British colonialism, Christian missionaries, Traditional Religion, and Islam and the Sokoto Caliphate constitute four distinct historical legacies (p. 10), which continue to respectively account, to a great extent, for the nature and complexities of interreligious and inter-ethnic relations in Northern Nigeria.

Burns gives us an unflinching assessment into the core of religious violence through the lens of religious history, psychoanalysis, philosophy and archetypal and social psychology. Burns first posits that religion, as an acting agent, is not necessarily the main cause of religious violence, but has something more to do with the individual actors who believe in certain reified religious ideas.

"Religions and religious freedom: perspectives of human rights within the tension between mission and conversion" was the topic of a symposium in 2009 by "Justitia et Pax", the main Roman Catholic consulting committee in Germany on questions of international responsibility.

International and interreligious questions of religious freedom are a field of bitter and long conflict. This is mostly because the important religions all proclaim their own unique validity, to the exclusion of others'. Religious freedom on the other hand inevitably involves a public competition between religions.

The author is chair of Comparative Empirical Theology at Radbout University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. This book is the first of a series to be published by Brill on "Empirical Research in Religion and Human Rights." Van der Ven's conceptual framework contrasts lives and societies governed according to a 'human rights culture' that stresses 'direct, active, subjective rights that are rooted in the dignity of the human person' with those that have a predominantly 'religious rules' culture that stresses 'justice, solidarity and love.' He readily acknowledges that these two sets of categories are porous and can overlap, and he seeks to clarify their differences, similarities, tensions and compatibilities by means of 'historical, empirical and theoretical research,' wherein the empirical side is largely the use of survey research to elucidate people's attitudes, views and actions with respect to human rights.

This monograph examines how 1 Peter advises its readers on how to cope with prejudice and discrimination. Holloway argues that "1 Peter marks one of the earliest attempts, perhaps the earliest attempt, by a Christian author to craft a more or less comprehensive response to anti-Christian prejudice and its outcomes" (2).

The author brings together many issues which are pertinent to consider in regard to ministry in China, particularly for readers in the West. He considers historical developments which especially influenced the growth of and perspectives toward Christianity in China. He also looks at current perceptions, some of which in his opinion mitigate the ministry effectiveness which Westerners could have; and he provides advice, recommendations, and examples for serving the Church in China.